Presentations

The transformation of copyright

Toby Bainton

Before the Information Society Directive of 2001, the involvement of libraries in copyright was very limited: it was mostly concerned with photocopying machines. But in the mid-1990s, digital materials arrived in libraries, and the year 2001 signalled changes in copyright law all over the European Union. ‘Communication to the public’ became something restricted by copyright law. That profoundly affected library services. At the same time, publishers found that they could distribute their digital materials securely through libraries. The library pays for a licence, and the library has the duty of restricting the circulation of the digital material to library customers only. This very usual arrangement depends on the existence of copyright law. In summary, copyright has been transformed from a specialist technical matter, into a regulation affecting almost everyone almost every day, as we all create and use digital information.